Vinik Finally Puts Channelside Bay Plaza Drama Behind Him

Vinik, officials with Port Tampa Bay and executives with the Liberty Group/Convergent Capital pair of developers all agreed over the weekend to a new legal settlement of their issues, just hours before a judge was scheduled to rule on the matter Monday. The deal now gives a green light to Vinik’s long-term hopes and dreams to remake the entire neighborhood into a gleaming mixed-use entertainment and shopping district around the Forum....As for what happens next, Vinik’s representatives have been especially quiet about their specific plans for Channelside, but there have been some hints of where they intend to take the center.During a June 30 meeting before the port’s governing board, Lightning Chief Executive Officer Tod Leiweke described their general hopes to make better connections around the neighborhood spanning from Florida Avenue to the cruise ship terminal. That presentation included watercolor artistic renderings of the area it called “Channelside Live” with glass-walled bridges between parking garages, and back-lit, window-like facades of buildings, altogether giving the area the feel of an entertainment district in the vein of Downtown Disney or Universal City Walk.